cycling question

[george estergan]

my 24g had been cycling for 4 wks, have 20lbs LS, 20lbs LR.3 hermit crabs.the guy from the lfs tested teh water and said that the nitrate 20 and ph was low(how low?) .i was planning to add livestrock slowly,maybe starting with 2 clowns,is ti better to wait for the nitate to be 0 and ph 0 before adding livestock?do i need more cleanup crew?.....thanks

 

[ronkent]

As long as your nitrites and ammonia are 0 your good to go. You can start doing water changes to get the nitrates down. You can now also run your skimmer. If you have a refugium add some macro to it now and they will halp with nitrates also. You will need more cleaning crew. Get some snails that wiill help keep the aldae down as you will go through a few different stages of algaes. 2 clowns at nitrate 20 will be fine.

 

[lvpd186]

I think what you need to test to determine if you can add your fish is Nitrite and Ammonia. Once those are both zero you should be able to stock fish.

 

[angelsj247]

fyi ph has to be at about 8.2, so the lfs was saying it was too low.. it needs to be raised

 

[Pete1399]

8.2 is fine. PH will fluctuate a bit. I would get some good test kits of your own IMO.

 

[Pete1399]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7079266#post7079266 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by angelsj247
fyi ph has to be at about 8.2, so the lfs was saying it was too low.. it needs to be raised

Oooops, Ithought you were the original poster....PH should actually be 8.4 but as I said 8.2 is fine also.

 

[bertoni]

I think doing your own testing is worth the cost and effort. I'd wait for 3 weeks of zero ammonia and then start adding fish slowly. Some water changes along the way (a few 25% or so) would help, too.

The nitrate isn't going to harm fish. Neither will nitrite. This article might be worth a read:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

 

[george estergan]

thanks for the suggestions guys.... i forgot to mention i got a nano,w/out a skimmer and i've taken the bioballs/rings as per ins.is this set up ok or skimmer a must?

 

[angelsj247]

a skimmer is not a must.. i dont have one on my 20 gal., its doing fine

 

[bertoni]

You can go without a skimmer, but I'd step up the water changes and look for signs of problems. A skimmer is a good safety net, IMO.